The concept of “relative autonomy” is now routinely used by Marxist and non-Marxist students of public policy to describe the state's independence from class forces. A rare attempt to use the concept empirically is Carl J. Cuneo's work on Canadian unemployment insurance (UI) in the 1930s. This article argues that Cuneo focusses too narrowly on class struggle, and thus misses important aspects of Canadian UI policy. Relative autonomy must be more broadly conceived in terms of the state's administrative expertise, fiscal capacity, and jurisdictional divisions. It is constituted within, not outside, the state. The article illustrates these internal forces through a re-examination of the evolution of Canadian UI in the 1930s.

The role of mass media in reporting United States military operations is a subject on which there is considerable interest as well as diversity of opinion. The significance of media coverage has been recognized by both supporters and opponents of American use of military force to achieve foreign policy objectives. However, analysts disagree on whether the media tend to be supportive or critical of such ventures.

This study examines the above question with respect to the US invasion of Panama which began on December 20, 1989. Coverage of the invasion by three American networks (ABC, CBS and NBC) and two Canadian networks (CBC and CTV) in their major nightly television newscasts was compared for a 23-day period from December 15, 1989 to January 6, 1990. The data set picks up material on Panama beginning five days prior to the invasion and continues for three days following the surrender of General Noriega. In total 197 news stories are analyzed.

Examined in the study are factors such as volume of coverage (number of stories and running time); placement of items in the newscast; substantive issues given prominence; news sources utilized, and whether these sources were favourable or unfavourable toward US foreign policy positions; positive and negative “images” presented of the key actors involved in the invasion (Manuel Noriega, Guillermo Endara and George Bush); and whether overall, in both text and visual impact, the story was likely to be interpreted as either pro- or anti-invasion by viewers.

Quebec's Bill 60 (or Charter of Values), legislation prohibiting public officials from wearing religious symbols and garb, provides a complicated case of a minority nation grappling with culture and gender, while also illustrating the more contingent condition of Canadian multiculturalism, equality and feminisms. Quebec has adopted interculturalism versus multiculturalism; moreover, its multilayered women's movement remains a legitimate force, unlike in the rest of Canada. Despite the intricacies of these distinctive developments, this article reveals how Charter of Values justifications asserted the Quebec nation's distinctiveness and alleged egalitarian pre-eminence over others, not only homogenizing and instrumentalizing multiple cultures, but also various feminisms. Yet, when culture, gender equality and feminisms become reified and essentialized through a strategic depiction of certain minority women's rights, Canada's already well-worn claims to diversity and equality are further frayed both subnationally and nationally.

Like other policy subsectors, power generation has been affected by the governance changes of the last two decades, including a shift to more collaborative state-society relations. Collaborative governance implies new kinds of public engagement designed to provide both input legitimacy, through the involvement of a broader range of actors in policy design, and output legitimacy, through enhanced feedback and policy learning. This paper compares the impact of “governance-driven engagement” in the power generation subsectors in Nova Scotia and Saskatchewan, arguing that engagement increased the complexity of the policy mix in the subsector without succeeding in providing better feedback and learning. The paper notes a recent trend towards more expert-driven and less collaborative processes, as both provinces struggled to rationalize and simplify power generation policy goals and instruments.

Abstract. Concern about the environment has grown around the world. Important work has assessed the correlates of support for the environment and its relationship to values (for example, Inglehart, 1995). Recent comparative work on political party positioning demonstrates how the issue has increasingly taken on a left–right dimension (Dalton, 2009). Filling a void in the literature, this paper explores how and whether the environmental issue has been incorporated into the ideological space of Canadian citizens and reflected in the views of the major political parties outside of Quebec. In particular, we first consider the extent to which the environment is a left–right issue in the minds of Canadian citizens. We follow this by assessing the effect of environmental concern on citizens' views of political parties and whether this issue tends to operate as a positional or valence issue in differentiating political parties. We use the Canadian Election Studies from 2000–2006 to address these research questions empirically.

Résumé. L'intérêt pour la protection de l'environnement s'est intensifié autour du monde. Des recherches ont été menées sur la corrélation entre l'idéologie et la protection de l'environnement (par exemple, Inglehart 1995). Une étude récente sur le positionnement des partis politiques en matière d'environnement démontre que la question prend de plus en plus une dimension gauche–droite (Dalton 2009). Dans le but de combler un manque dans la littérature, cet article tente d'établir dans quelle mesure l'environnement a effectivement été intégré dans l'espace idéologique des citoyens canadiens et se reflète dans l'opinion sur les principaux partis politiques à l'extérieur du Québec. Nous examinons d'abord jusqu'à quel point l'environnement est considéré par les Canadiens comme un enjeu politique de gauche ou de droite. Nous évaluons ensuite l'effet de cet intérêt pour l'environnement sur l'opinion des citoyens canadiens à l'égard des partis politiques en vue de déterminer s'il s'agit là d'un enjeu de valeur ou d'un enjeu positionnel dans les choix politiques et électoraux. Nous appuyons empiriquement notre étude sur les données de l'Étude électorale canadienne de 2000 à 2006.

Abstract. Disability rights organizations have been active participants before the Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) since the mid-1980s but they have been completely neglected in the literature on social movement legal mobilization. This paper seeks to remedy this lacuna by providing an overview of the litigation activity of the main disability rights organizations. It builds on an emerging complementary theoretical perspective for understanding the participation by movement actors in the Court. Through an analysis of shared and contested collective meaning frames within and across social movement organizations we can complement existing theoretical explanations for the overall development of legal mobilization by social movement actors.

Résumé. Les organismes du mouvement de défense des droits des personnes handicapées prennent une part active aux litiges devant la Cour suprême du Canada depuis le milieu des années quatre-vingt. Toutefois, on ne retrouve pas trace de ce mouvement dans la littérature sur la mobilisation des acteurs collectifs dans les lieux juridiques. Le présent article vient combler cette lacune en analysant les activités du mouvement dans ce domaine. L'article s'appuie sur une perspective théorique novatrice et complémentaire qui s'intéresse particulièrement aux rôles que jouent les idées organisationnelles et les relations intra-organisationnelles (conflictuelles ou de coopération) au sein du mouvement. L'article met de l'avant une explication qui combine ces deux facteurs pour mieux expliquer les tendances activistes de participation aux litiges par rapport aux analyses «classiques» qui ne prennent en compte que les ressources ou le contexte politique.

In nearly every recent commentary on Canadian political parties one observation has been repeatedly emphasized. It is that the Canadian electorate has shown an inclination to put in power at the provincial level parties which stand in opposition to the party which has been entrusted with power at Ottawa. The writers who have stressed this phenomenon have been impressed by the fact that during the latter years of their national ascendancy the Liberals were in control of only a few of the smaller provinces (by 1957 only Prince Edward Island, New Rrunswick, and, through a coalition, Manitoba), while in the other and larger provinces the Progressive Conservatives, C.C.F., Social Credit, or Union Nationale were firmly entrenched. From this observation three conclusions, either explicit or implicit, have generally been deduced. The first is that during the latter years of the Liberal régime the real opposition to the Government was not to be found at the Speaker's left in Ottawa, but rather in the provincial capitals. The second is that the individual Canadian voter has alternated his party choice at provincial and federal elections, and by so doing has demonstrated a type of voting behaviour which is not usually to be found in federations. The third conclusion is that in favouring one party provincially and another party nationally the Canadian voter is motivated by a calculated desire to balance the power of the one against the other. The purpose of this article is to examine the pattern of provincial and federal election results and to determine the extent to which these conclusions are supported by the available evidence.

Abstract. In contemporary Canada, the idea of the powerful first minister is widely acknowledged. The recent debate has focused on Donald Savoie's thesis that the concentration of power to the centre has accelerated and ministers have effectively lost their influence on decision making in cabinet. This article identifies two research gaps. First, the study combines both the experiences of federal and provincial cabinet ministers to construct an understanding of Canadian cabinet decision making at both levels of government. Second, the research investigates the new generation of cabinet ministers; no study has yet consulted ministers of the 2000–2010 decade.

Résumé. Dans le Canada contemporain, l'idée du premier ministre puissant est largement reconnue. Le débat récent s'est fixé sur la thèse de Donald Savoie que la concentration de pouvoir au centre a accéléré de le et les ministres ont perdu efficacement leur influence sur la prise de décision dans le cabinet. Cet article identifie deux écarts de recherche. Premièrement, l'étude combine les deux les expériences de ministres fédéraux et provinciaux pour construire une compréhension de prise de décision ministérielle Canadienne aux deux niveaux de gouvernement. Deuxième, la recherche examine la nouvelle génération de ministres – aucune étude a consulté pourtant des ministres de la 2000–2010 décennie.

Federal and provincial policy responses to the COVID-19 pandemic raise a host of constitutional issues that decision makers must pay heed to or risk serious violations of individual rights under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. This research note will examine a number of policy challenges as they relate to mobility rights (s. 6), legal rights (ss. 7 through 14), and equality rights (s. 15) and will articulate the factors that policy makers should consider in design and implementation. Other important constitutional questions, such as those relating to the division of powers, emergency powers and the relationship between the executive and Parliament, have also emerged in Canada but are beyond the scope of this note.

Abstract. Canadian political science often neglects the municipal level as a legitimate research subject, even when large-scale transformations are implemented, such as the 2001 territorial reorganization in Quebec. This paper shows how mayors were involved in municipal mergers, mainly led by the provincial government, and especially how they played different roles in order to ensure their legitimacy as leaders of their communities. Specifically, the creation of the City of Saguenay has been studied through an examination of the activities, strategies and discourses of the mayors of this agglomeration in order to highlight normal and extraordinary levels of action. In doing so, this article contributes new knowledge of the mayors' own conceptions of their duties and roles and also of the rescaling process.

Résumé. Le palier municipal attire peu d'attention en science politique canadienne, même lorsque surviennent des réformes substantielles comme la réorganisation territoriale municipale entreprise au Québec en 2001. L'article montre comment les maires ont tenté de s'approprier la mise en œuvre de ces fusions municipales organisées surtout par le gouvernement provincial, en insistant sur les rôles divers qu'ils ont joués pour assurer leur légitimité en tant que chefs de leur communauté. L'étude de la création de la Ville de Saguenay a permis d'examiner de plus près les activités, les stratégies et les discours des maires de cette agglomération et de mettre en lumière leurs registres d'action ordinaires et extraordinaires. L'article jette ainsi un éclairage nouveau sur les perceptions qu'ont les maires de leur rôle et de leurs responsabilités et sur les effets politiques de la réorganisation municipale.

Abstract. Unlike previous methodological debates in political science, the recent rational choice controversy has excluded consideration of normative questions altogether. These can be recovered, in part, through a genealogy of counter-utopian democratic theory which connects modern rational choice theory to the fin-de-siècle sociology of elites via the mediating figure of Schumpeter. The family resemblances include the aspiration toward a pure science of society, the search for a “realistic” theory of democratic politics, and the shading of an empirical proposition about elite domination into a normative celebration. Though democratic theorists have learned much from the counter-utopian tradition generally, both sides of the rational choice controversy have failed to take seriously the elitists' recognition of the ineluctable normative and ideological dimensions of social research.

Résumé. Les débats récents sur le choix rationnel, à contre-pied d'autres disputes méthodologiques en science politique, ont exclu les questions normatives. Ces questions peuvent se rétablir, en partie, par l'intermédiaire d'une généalogie contre-utopiste de la théorie démocratique, qui lie la théorie moderne du choix rationnel au retour de la sociologie élitiste de fin de siècle, avec le personnage de Schumpeter comme médiateur. Les ressemblances familiales portent l'aspiration à une science pure de la société, la recherche d'une théorie «réaliste» de la démocratie et la transition d'une proposition empirique sur la domination des élites vers une célébration normative. Bien que les théoriciens démocratiques aient beaucoup appris de la tradition contre-utopiste, aucune des deux parties du débat sur le choix rationnel n'a pris en compte la reconnaissance élitiste des aspects idéologiques inévitables de la recherche sociale.

This article examines two types of collaboration in Canada between the federal and provincial governments in the disability policy sector and assesses their implications for the citizenship rights of persons with disabilities. One type of collaboration is across the levels of order in Canada and notable examples are the 1997 multilateral framework agreement on Employability Assistance for People with Disabilities and the 1999 Social Union Framework Agreement. The Provincial/Territorial Council on Social Policy Renewal, a structure established in 1995, illustrates the second type. This study suggests that each intergovernmental arrangement has a particular working model of citizenship associated with it. Contrary to the conventional view in the literature, the article argues that, for disability groups, the first form of federalism is enhancing political rights of citizenship along with the economic and social dimensions of membership in society. Further, the second kind of intergovernmental relations is more than just a fleeting movement of provincialism; it exhibits the potential to play a greater sustained role in shaping Canada's welfare state.

Abstract. The use of internet technologies, specifically interactive electronic dialogues, has the potential to revive the shrinking Canadian public sphere. Precedent for this assertion can be found in the historical effect of radio technology. The development of Canadian radio forums in the twentieth century such as the National Farm Radio Forum and the Citizen's Forum provided a crude two way interactive medium that helped to shape collective Canadian norms and values. The internet holds the potential to reintroduce national dialogues and reinvigorate the public sphere at a time when Canadians both need and want to address national issues such as environmental concerns and sustainable development. As such dialogue occurs in a “cyberspace” removed from the limitations of physical geography, internet dialogues allow participants from widely diverse groups to come together, surmounting traditional barriers to interaction. Though the danger exists that internet technologies will be abused to reinforce passive static forms of communication, the potential for highly interactive two way dialogue holds the promise of bringing the public into timely and necessary debates on public policy.

Résumé. L'utilisation des technologies de l'Internet, spécifiquement les dialogues électroniques interactifs, a la capacité de ranimer le public canadien. Cette affirmation peut être prouvée en constatant l'effet historique de la technologie de la radio : au vingtième siècle, le développement canadien des tribunes radiophoniques tels que le forum de la ferme nationale et celui des citoyens ont aidé à mettre sur pied un média permettant un dialogue direct entre les participants sur les normes et les valeurs canadiennes collectives. L'Internet a la capacité de réintroduire les dialogues et de revigorer le public national à un moment où les Canadiens ont besoin et veulent discuter des problèmes nationaux tels que l'environnement et le développement durable. Lorsqu'un tel dialogue se produit dans un “ Cyberespace ”, les limites géographiques sont éliminées et ceci permet à des groupes de divers participants de s'unir, surmontant les barrières de communication traditionnelles. Bien que le danger existe où les technologies de l'Internet pourraient être abusées pour ainsi renforcer les formes passives et statiques de communication, le potentiel pour un média permettant un dialogue direct promet de rassembler le public pour des discussions nécessaires sur l'ordre public.

Résumé. Les études sur le comportement électoral au niveau municipal sont rares. Sont encore plus rares celles qui comparent les élections municipales avec celles d'un autre niveau. Cette recherche vise à combler ce vide, mais d'une manière particulière : nous nous intéressons aux gens qui choisissent de s'abstenir de façon sélective. Il s'agit donc de voir pourquoi certains votent lors des élections fédérales mais non lors des élections municipales, ou pourquoi une élection de « deuxième niveau » serait moins attirante qu'une élection de « premier niveau ». Cette question est examinée à l'aide d'un échantillon composé de jeunes montréalais ayant entre 19 et 31 ans. Quatre déterminants sont plus fortement liés à l'abstention sélective : l'identification partisane, l'enracinement local, l'intérêt pour la politique et l'utilisation des services municipaux.

Abstract. Studies of electoral behaviour at the municipal level are rare. Even less frequent are those comparing behaviour in municipal elections and in elections at other levels of government. Our aim is to address this gap in the research, with particular interest paid to people who choose to abstain in a selective way. This study considers those who participate in federal elections but not in municipal elections. Stated alternatively, why might second-order elections be less attractive to voters than first-order elections? To address this question, we use a sample composed of young Montrealers aged 19 to 31. Four determinants were found to be important when explaining selective abstention : partisan identification, local attachment, political interest and use of municipal services.

No established liberal democracy has achieved sex balance in its national legislature. Scholars agree skewed candidate pools put forward by parties during elections cause sex-disproportionate seat distribution, but disagree as to whether disproportionality is caused by too few women aspirant candidates coming forward (supply) or party selectors preferring men (demand). This paper uses a multistage method to explore supply and demand during the British Labour party's candidate selection process. Rare data from three elections and 4622 aspirants allow for an unobstructed look inside the secret garden of politics and reveal the party is not fully feminized insofar that women aspirants are disproportionally filtered out of its selection process and are disproportionally underrepresented in its candidate pool. Testing reveals a lack of selector demand for women aspirants has a greater impact on women's underrepresentation than an undersupply of women aspirants, a finding which supports using sex quotas to level imbalanced candidate slates.